


Prank Call

by Tallulah



Category: Battle Royale (Manga)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-11-06 12:25:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11036145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallulah/pseuds/Tallulah
Summary: Shinji's not really on board with this whole bereavement thing.





	Prank Call

The call comes at three a.m. and Shinji hears his dad getting grumpily up to answer it and he figures _nice prank on the old parental units, wish I'd thought of it_ and then he hears his father's voice going still and flat, which is the opposite of what's meant to happen.

At three a.m. you can't get your head round anything and the whispered discussions in the hall, _It's Hajime, they say there's been some kind of accident, I'm going to the hospital_ , seem like part of a dream, or like they're all goofing around. Shinji's even finding it kind of funny that Uncle's getting his dad up in the small hours, like it's the perfect counterpoint to all the other ways Uncle and Dad don't get along.

He goes back to his room and messes around online until he hears his dad's car pull up in the drive again. It's almost daylight now, though really it's just the sky's not completely dark. He goes to lean over the bannisters and eavesdrop but Dad calls up to him to come downstairs. When that happens, he kind of knows already that shit's got real. No. That's dumb. You say _shit's got real_ when you're enjoying it, or you're the version of you who's with your friends. You don't say it about the kind of bad news he knows is waiting for him this time.

So they tell him and of course it doesn't seem real, it doesn't make sense, and they all kind of stand around for a while not knowing what to do and in the end Mum says he should probably get ready for school. He's walking down the street like everything's normal and maybe everything is normal, because, nothing _looks_ weird. He's just feeling... shitty for no reason.

Yutaka catches him up halfway, like usual, and is all, _Hey, Mim, what's happening?_ , and he – god – he comes back, like he's planned this, with _Not much, little buddy – my uncle got killed last night but apart from that, things are pretty chill –_ Yutaka goes dead white and spends an entire block trying to stutter out a response. Shinji still feels kind of bad about that whenever he remembers it. 

Saying it out loud kind of, it kind of unblocks stuff in his head. By the time the first class starts he's like, _No. No way._ He can feel the feelings ahead of him and he doesn't want to have to go through them, so he's like a kid again, pitching a fit at something he doesn't like. He works at focusing on class – even history, which he generally uses as an excuse to give his mind a break from studying – which is great but it means at lunchtime enough time has passed he's got way closer to the feelings than he realised, and they really, really suck.

He wanders off, into the empty basketball court, sits in the bleachers and tries to put some words onto all this, but it doesn't work. It's not words, it's just hurting and fury and still this suspicion that someone's messing with him and it's all a joke. 

Yutaka finds him just as the tears do – and you know what, crying sucks as well, it makes you feel ill and you sound like a little kid – and turns red and says something like _oh god, I'm sorry_ and _I can go away, just tell me to go away if you want_. Shinji nearly does but he's realising by now it wouldn't make any difference. The problem is way bigger than someone catching you in tears. _Nah, it's okay_ , he says. _Stick around. I'll be done with this in a while._

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for 12daysChristmas challenge on LiveJournal.


End file.
